Warriors of Remnant
by THE Glorious Him
Summary: An old warrior’s eternal hunger for a purpose. A young soldier, twice displaced from her home. Can the two save this strange world from the forces that plague it? Or will they too succumb to deciete and misplaced trust as all who have before? This world is unforgiving, but they’ve dealt with worse. (Rewrite of Remnant Commando)
1. Prologue/Fallen Child of Urs

_-Prologue-_

This was to be Xal 'Kalek's last job. At 95 years, the former First Blade of the Silent Shadow was slowing down, had been for a while. He should have quit years ago, but fighting was all he knew, he was also exiled from his home for certain actions taken during the Created War, after which he became a mercenary, a very shameful thing for a Sangheili of his position to be. Which brings him to where he is now, in a stolen pelican with a kidnapped Huragok, desperately trying to stay in the air. He had taken all the necessary precautions, he planted explosives on their vehicles, aircraft, and armory, there should have been no way for his escape to have failed, but some jackass was sleeping with a rocket launcher and got a lucky shot on one the pelican's engines.

He'd managed to keep it keep it the air for more than half an hour, pretty impressive considering that it was a brick with wings _before_ it had been hit by a rocket, but what explodes must come down. The damaged engine pod blew up. While the Huragok was panicking at their sudden descent, Xal was keeping himself just on the _verge_ of panicking, working the controls in order to turn a crash landing into a controlled fall. He did well all things considered. The pelican hit the dirt hard before sliding a few meters, the shields on his infiltration harness absorbing the impact. He was out of the pilot's seat the moment the pelican finally slowed to a halt, he grabbed the now disoriented Huragok and ordered it to follow.

Xal ran into on of this regions many conifer forests in a bid to get as far away from the crashed pelican as possible, the captured huragok following closely behind, they had a few hours before this colonies militia could catch up, Xal made sure to make good on that time.

* * *

After hours of running relentlessly through the forest, Xal was eventually forced to stop in order to catch his breath. He wouldn't have long before he had to get moving again, he would resurrect and strangle whoever had the bright idea of giving huragok the ability to glow; Xal could hide easily, even without active camouflage, the oncoming dark of night would conceal him, but hiding would not be an option because this _tentacled_ _balloon_ _animal_ had to be bioluminescent! Xal calmed his breathing when he realized his frustration, he needed to focus. _"In and out, in and out."_ Having regained his focus, he turned his senses outward, focusing on the sounds around him... he heard nothing. No engines, no birds, even the insects have gone quiet. Something is very wrong here.

He drew his pistol and began scanning the area, ready to boil his problems away in a flurry of green plasma bolts. As he was scanning he began to feel something, faint at first, but picking up in intensity. It was like a heartbeat, or more specifically, the alternating pattern of a Sangheili heartbeat. He followed the feeling, pistol still raised until he came upon a clearing with a strange building at its center. The building was reminiscent of Forerunner architecture, but very clearly wasn't. Its walls were almost fluid, they shifted and expanded and contracted before his eyes, yet everything about it appeared to be solid. While he was enraptured in his observations, he didn't notice the Huragok he was being paid to retrieve approach, nor did he notice himself getting closer the odd structure.

Xal, in a state of compromised lucidity, reached his hand out and touched the ever changing building, the need to be closer to the heartbeat overwhelming his senses. His mind snapped back to reality when he was met with a sudden change in scenery. He looked about himself, noting how it seemed the huragok had been able to follow him into this far too bright a room. Xal assumed the he was now inside the previously mentioned structure; unlike the outside, however, the inside was completely solid and as unchanging as rock. As Xal's eyes adjusted he noticed he was in a large chamber, the only way to go being a long hallway with a door at the end. Seeing as how it was the only way to go, he began following the hallway, his pistol magnetically holstered at his hip, the Huragok continuing to follow, it looked rather nervous.

As the two were walking down the hall, they noticed that is was lined with additional, smaller doors, or the Huragok noticed, as Xal once again found himself in strange trance, marching mindlessly down the corridor to the large door at the end. He even remained oblivious when the structure they were in began to "glitch". The Huragok noticed and accessed one the side doors to escape the extremely troubling situation, disappearing to points unknown. Xal continued his march to the end, the glitching worsening as time went on, until eventually the corridor began to shake violently and the jostling threw Xal through one the side doors sending the sangheili to a place far colder than the destination intended for him. The structure shattered under the strain of operating soon after.

 _-Fallen Child of Urs-_

The Ouranos Facilty was the most important and well guarded place in all of Solitas, just after Atlas Academy, of course; so the probability of anyone or anything getting inside without raising alarms was quite low, yet one such anomaly was staring Corporal Kim Orchid in the face. "What do you think it is, ma'am?" Asked a Private, who was aiming his rifle at the... _thing._

"Hell if I know, Private." Kim said as she began circling the... whatever it was. First, the thing was big, she couldn't tell how big as it was sprawled out on the ground, but was bigger than anyone she'd ever met, which was saying something, some faunus were really tall. Second, it was covered in strange, indigo plating and had a black visor that would probably look really menacing if its owner were standing up. Kim deduced that it was some kind of new robot, it made more sense than anything else, not that that was saying much. "Get a couple of the AKs up here, we need to get this thing to a containment cell."

* * *

For many, it could be said that life was good, for Xal, however, things weren't as nice. First off, he felt terrible, he felt like he tried to beat a mgalekgolo in a full body weight lifting competition and forgot to stretch afterwards, he wasn't sure if he won. Second, he was in a cell of some kind, the door appeared to be hard light, and judging by his hud, he was unarmed, but whoever had him detained was dumb enough to leave him in his armor. And third, he had undoubtedly failed his contract to deliver the huragok, which would lead to conversation he'd rather not have, but more than that, he was being observed. Xal lifted himself from the steel floor and approached the young, orange haired girl who stood outside this most recent cage of his. The girl continued to analyze him as he approached, cocking her head to get a better look. "Hello?" Xal said in accented English, cocking his own head, hoping that she spoke the language; most humans he met could.

Suddenly the girl's face broke out into bright beaming smile. "Salutations, my name is Penny!" The girl, now known as Penny, says excitedly as she made a small waving gesture. "You don't sound like a robot." The girl says in astonishment, no longer smiling, but leaning closer to the energy that separated them.

"Robot?" Xal asked, confused, leaning in to hear the short girl better. Sure, she looked young, she probably wasn't born until a few years after The Created War, and few humans had ever seen the Silent Shadow harness and lived to tell about it, but surely they would teach their children of the other species that inhabited the galaxy, especially the sangheili! "Why would I sound like a robot?"

"Well, that's what the soldiers told me you were." Penny said innocently, rocking back and forth on her heals. So the soldiers thought he was a machine? He could forgive the girls ignorance, but the soldiers? Xal just realized that this was a military installation, his appearant mental slowness was further reason to take a nap at the earliest opportunity, but what was this girl doing here~ Xal's thoughts trailed off as he sighted his weapons on a crate behind Penny, it seemed his escape would be easier than he could have ever imagined.

"It doesn't matter what I am." Xal says, leaning back and crossing his arms. "But I would greatly appreciate it if you were to open this cell." Xal punctuates his request with a small wave of his hand, as his arms remained crossed.

Penny's smile faltered once again. "I don't think General Ironwood would be very happy with me if I did that, I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to be talking to you."

A general? Now he was _really_ curious. Xal was about to question Penny on all these new developments interfering with his career, but was interrupted by a stern voice, "Penny!"

The short girl jumped at the sound of her name and saluted. "General Ironwood!" Penny yelped in surprise. Xal followed her gaze and watched as a tall (for a human) man with graying hair walked into his view, he had an air of authority about him and walked with confidence, this was most definitely the General. Accompanying the General was a young woman who had the very same air of confidence; that, and the sword at her hip told Xal that she was important as well.

"At ease, Penny." The General said. He looked as if he were about to say something else, that is until he noticed Xal was conscious and looking between the three individuals. "Penny, I recall your father wanting to speak with you." The General said, clearly lying.

Not that Penny noticed, of course. "Oh ok!" Penny said before turning around and practically skipping away from the cell.

After she was gone, Xal and General Ironwood turned their heads back to face each other. After a moment of silence, Xal spoke. "Release me." He said with all tact of a Jiralhanae during mating season. Xal was never one to waste his own valuable time.

Both the General and his companion stiffened at the sound of voice. "We can't do that, not until we figure out what you are and how you infiltrated this facility." Infiltrate?

Xal shifted his posture to something more dangerous. "What I am?" Xal nearly growled out the question. "You're going to need to be more specific." Xal beat down his annoyance before it could gain strength and become anger, a loss of composure on his part would be a most shameful display for even a disgraced First Blade. "And as for infiltrating this place," Xal chuckled. "Had I been trying to do so, you would never have known I was here."

The General scowled. " _What are you_ and what is your purpose here?" Ironwood questioned again, grinding his teeth.

"There's thatquestion again." Xal was becoming very bored with this conversation very quickly, but he stopped it from showing in his voice and relaxed his posture. Only his words would give away his true feelings. "And as for my purpose, it has nothing to do with one so insignificant as you." The woman's posture tensed at his blatant disregard for her superior, an effect of loyalty most likely, Xal logged that away for a future escape plan should the others fail. "Now release me, I grow bored of this conversation."

"You aren't going anywhere until you cooperate!" Ironwood had kept his composure throughout the conversation, his posture and position never shifted once and there was no sign of nervousness nor fear. Had Xal been more gullible, he may have truly believed that the General didn't recognize his species. "I don't know what you are, but you are in of the most secure areas on the continent. Don't even think of attempting an escape, you won't make it."

That was a challenge if Xal ever heard one. "Then we have nothing more to talk about." Xal said, the General's stupid game was beginning to bore him, he was already activating his active camouflage. "Truly unfortunate." With that, he punched a wall at the point closest to the light-door, his strength more than sufficient to penetrate the steel. He yanked out whatever components he could wrap his hand around, which turned out to be enough to deactivate the hard light barrier.

The woman immediately slashed at his last known position; he was surprised that her sword wasn't just for show, but he was even more surprised that she moved with a speed he would normally only associate with augmented humans, but none of that mattered seeing as how Xal was already moving towards his weapons on the crate. The first thing he did upon reaching the crate was tossing one his four plasma grenades at Ironwood's feet. Both the General and his companion's eyes widened at the high pitched whine the weapon made just before detonating and they quickly put their arms up as if to block the explosion. Xal turned back to his weapons, knowing his work was done as the grenade did what grenades do. He was reaching for his T-50 Delta as the heat from the plasma detonation washed over him, it was close enough to short out his shields.

He turned as he finished securing his weapons to his armor and was quite surprised when an ice spike narrowly missed his head, he was surprised a second time shortly after as bullets began pinging off his armor and alarms started blaring. Luckily, the shields on his harness recharged more quickly than most systems could and he was able to re-engage his camouflage and slip away. He hid himself at the far end of the cell block and evaluated the unlikely situation he found himself in.

His newest adversaries had somehow survived a close proximity plasma grenade detonation, an impossible feat for unshielded, unarmored officers. Though, it seemed that whatever miracle saved them did not protect them from the flash, they were blinking and rubbing away the tears from their eyes. And now there were soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms and weapons pouring into the cell block. Xal noted that their equipment appeared to high quality, not equipment that the various Insurrectionist armies would have access to or even wear, and they were most definitely not UNSC.

To recap: military facility, high ranking officials, hard light technology that humans just did not have, an ice spike, and professional soldiers with fancy equipment. An odd situation indeed. " _I've already failed my previous contract and, judging by the locals, I'm not even on the same planet I was before. Perhaps some intelligence gathering would be best at this time."_ Xal thought. He watched as the humans attempted to find him, they never would, not unless he wanted them to. That time would come soon enough, but for now, stalking the General would be the first phase of this operation.

* * *

 **First chapter of the rewrite here. Even if you're disappointed that I've discontinued the original _Remnant Commando_ , I can tell you right now that I'm super excited about this and you should be too, it's gonna be great.**


	2. Homecoming

_-Homecoming-_

Blue eyes snapped open in the dark of the pod. Red, titanium gauntlets slamming against the door that sealed her in until it abruptly opened, its sole occupant falling to the floor with a short, but intense, fit of coughing. When she finished, she wiped her mouth and attempted to shake off her dizziness and general disorientation before getting to her feet and taking a look around the chamber she found herself in. She noted that it was empty and featureless, except for five pedestals that each had a weapon or a piece of equipment floating above them, she supposed the pod counted as a feature too. Her gaze settled on the middle pedestal almost immediately, its item was a small teddy bear on a chain, _her_ teddy bear. All of a sudden, the events that led Daisy to this point flashed through her mind. She was supposed to be dead, dead along with everyone else who took part in the battle that day. March 19th, 2528, the third year of The Harvest Campaign, the day she took three needler rounds to the lungs, the day Ralph and those marines perished to fuel rod fire as she lay dying, feebly shooting those elites with her magnum in a desperate bid to save her comrades. In the end, she could only watch as the pelican that was intended to extract them exploded, killing her best friend.

Daisy wiped the tear that formed in her eye. This wasn't the time to think of the dead, Daisy needed to focus on the present and all the weird shit that came with. She tried to make heads or tails of the place she awakened in and utterly failed. Daisy just had no idea what the hell was going on. She decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth though, her being alive and all that Jazz. Nothing to do but look forward and retrieve the rest of the equipment "on offer", so to speak.

Daisy secured her bear to the vent under her combat knife and looked at the far left pedestal. On it lay, or float, her helmet. The last she had seen of it, it had been knocked off her head and the visor had shattered against the concrete, but now? Now it looked good as new, Daisy looked down at her chest plate and saw that it looked like it was fixed too. She put her helmet on, her HUD powering up and running diagnostics, MJOLNIR was fully operational. Her armor complete, Daisy's day had just improved a tiny, little bit. And as she looked at the rest of her, or it soon to be hers, equipment, she felt a bright smile grow on her face. In order from left to right: there was an M90 shotgun, she picked it up and found that it was fully loaded, no extra shells though, she stowed it on her back plate and moved to the next pedestal, on it was an M6D Magnum, fully loaded, no additional magazines other than the two she had on her when she got shot, she holstered it to her thigh plate and moved to the next pedestal, on it was a, ' _sigh',_ a _fucking_ needler! Now, Daisy would argue that she had a pretty well developed senses of humor, the other Spartans could attest to how she would sometimes laugh a _little_ too hard at Fred's dumb wisecracks, but this? No way this was anything other than the universe spitting in her face! A _literal_ insult to injury! With a roll of her eyes she took the alien weapon, she knew firsthand just how well these things could chew through armor, she wouldn't like it though! Same with all the other guns, fully loaded, no additional... clips? Magazines? Crystal footballs? It didn't matter what they were called, point is, she didn't have any extras.

Daisy attached the needler to her other thigh plate, and no sooner than she had, the pedestals sunk into floor, which was promptly pulled out from under her. She fell into the darkness below, she couldn't see, she couldn't tell which way was up, and she had no idea just how deep this hole was. All these questions and more were answered as she soon landed on her ass. Despite weighing over a thousand pounds, the fall didn't hurt all that much, which allowed Daisy to focus on her new surroundings, well, _new-ish._ This "new" chamber looked exactly the same as last one, except instead of a stasis pod and weapons pedestals, there was a single, weird looking door. And seeing as how there was nowhere else to go, Daisy thought " _S_ _crew it!",_ picked herself up, and walked right on outside!

Her near instantaneous reaction time only barely saved her from falling flat on her face after tripping over a rock immediately after walking out into a desert. Daisy looked around herself, urgently trying to deal with this newest, incredibly jarring experience. She saw that it was dark out and when she turned around she only saw more desert, she could have sworn she had just left a building and she was pretty sure she didn't walk very far... or at all, for that matter. She also noticed that the stars were beautiful tonight, she never really ever got time to just look up and see the world around for what it was rather than just another battlefield. But the stars didn't hold Daisy's attention for very long as her gaze was being drawn to the moon, a _shattered_ moon. It was beautiful in its own way, with its soft, silvery glow and all around uniqueness. Nope, she had never seen a moon quite like that, but it also told her she wasn't on the same planet she was before, which was total bullshit! Her day went from _literally dying,_ to okay, to shit, all in the span of about ten minutes. All in all, just the average for a Spartan.

Daisy really hoped this planet was inhabited, or that this desert wasn't too expansive, but knowing her luck, an atmosphere was all this planet had and it was just another lifeless rock floating about in the cold void of space. _"This is probably all ONI's fault."_ Daisy thought as she scanned the horizon, she found that most problems in her life could easily be blamed on ONI and, to a lesser extent, Halsey, but her thoughts couldn't linger on the organization from which all negativity in her heart originated, she had found a sign of life, smoke, to the west. It could also just be a wildfire, but it did give Daisy a direction regardless. An objective, somewhere to go. She set a waypoint and got moving.

* * *

Mission clock read five hours, not a problem, she expected a long walk. The sun was rising, again, not a problem, Daisy wouldn't even feel it through her suit. No, the walking and the climate weren't her problem, but they were factors that directly tied into the problem. To put it simply, she was bored, not exactly the end of the world, but still, it wasn't a feeling that Daisy had a whole lot of experience with. Normally, she was busy being shot at, or evading detection, and even in her rare moments of downtime, there was always training or there was someone to talk to, but this? This was the first time she had ever just simply _walked_ from one place to another, no danger, almost no objective, just walking. This was also only the second time she had ever been alone, only this time she wasn't being hunted by the UNSC. She looked the horizon once more, she couldn't see any smoke, but judging by her waypoint and by how fast the sun the sun was moving across the sky, she would reach her destination by sometime tonight if she didn't stop moving.

 _"It's pretty convenient that this world has a similar rotational period to Earth."_ She thought, never once slowing her pace.

* * *

The sun had just gone down, mission clock read 18 hours, 13 hours of daylight wasn't too bad. And even better than that? Daisy's constant, relentless pace was paying off. She could hear waves gently lapping at a shoreline, she could see trees, and if she strained, she thought she could hear some shouting as well. She quickened her pace to a jog, eventually working her way up to a run. Daisy kept up her ground eating pace until she saw a blip on her motion tracker, she immediately drew the shotgun from her back and dropped to one knee, halting her momentum, the terrain was almost completely flat, whatever it was, she should have seen it a mile away. She kept scanning in the general direction of the blip as it got closer, right, left, she even looked up. Daisy didn't even think to look down until it was right on top her, no, not on top, _below._ She rolled out of the way just in time as a strange creature burst out the ground where she just was. And when Daisy said strange, she meant _strange._ It had black skin, a bony face plate, and a stubby tail, all in all, a weird little thing. Unfortunately, it was hostile, weird thing, a point that was made crystal clear by the fact that it just tried getting the jump on her by burrowing towards her not even a second ago. So, seeing as it was too close for her shotgun, she stabbed it through its skull with her combat knife, it went down fast enough, but, as if triggered by the death of their pack mate, more of the little bastards began showing up on her motion tracker.

Daisy holstered the shotgun and drew her magnum, she had a lot more ammo for it and its M225 SAP-HE rounds packed more than enough punch to deal with these creeps, _"Designating hostile fauna as 'creeps'"_. It looked like the rest of the creeps were going to be a little smarter than the first when they began surrounding her. Daisy watched her motion tracker and got ready to move, three were converging on her position while the rest kept moving around, probably to wait for any weaknesses in her defense to make themselves known. Daisy leapt out way just before the three aggressors could launch themselves out of the ground and knock her off her feet, she assumed that was the strategy, the Spartan shot them all dead before the even got all the way out their holes. She saw two red blips break off from the rest and slink out of sensor range, that left ten. They were all coming to her now, more than likely trying to overwhelm her, she wouldn't let that happen. When the next wave was on her, she only made small adjustments to her position, when the first of the little beasties burst from the ground, rather than shoot it, she stepped around its attempt at a kick drove her knife through its throat. Three groups three leapt from the dirt soon after, they were further away than any of her previous attackers, but not by much. They were far enough out to be safe from her knife as they emerged, but near enough to be able to quickly close that distance, and each group was on a different side to divide her focus. Time slowed for Daisy as the creeps started running towards her, she fired her pistol twice at the nearest group, dropping the pair she shot at and slashing the survivor as it came up on her, the other two groups were slower than the first, but they got plenty close in the short time it took Daisy to kill the fast group. Daisy dodged as the leader of group two swung at her with its tail, she then shot it and both its partners through their heads, she then did the same with group three.

Daisy checked her motion tracker for contacts and, seeing none, proceeded to replace her now empty magazine with a fresh one, she even had one extra round already in the chamber. Daisy looked around at all the bodies and noted that they appeared to be dissolving. _"One more weirdness point for this planet."_ She thought, but despite the relative safety of the moment, Daisy thought it best to get moving, she didn't want to waste any more of her precious ammo on the local wildlife. With that thought, she restarted her run to the jungle, and broke into a sprint when she heard gunshots.

* * *

Fortunately, Daisy didn't have to run for very long before reaching the source of the gunfire, unfortunately, the gun's owner was already dead and being chewed on by more black and white creatures. These new animals were different from the other species she encountered earlier, with them, she couldn't make any kind of comparison with other animals she had seen, with these new ones, however, they looked like misshapen wolves, and judging by the corpse of the man they were eating, they were hostile. The biggest one, the one with the most bone plates, noticed her first; it growled and bounded behind a tree, the other two growled as well, but leapt at her rather than taking cover. One died as a 12x40mm magnum round exploded inside its head and the other met its end as a titanium clad fist shattered its skull. The pack leader was nowhere to be found. Daisy went over to the dead man, keeping her pistol out in case something tried sneaking up on her. Poor guy was pretty mangled, but there was some good news to go with this, she now knew there were humans on this planet. Daisy looked over the man one more time and almost missed the animal ears atop his head, she reached out to touch them and found they weren't just a stylish headband. The ears were a part of him, there was no scar tissue to indicate surgery and the set even had ear canals. Gene modding perhaps? No, this was more akin to gene splicing, something beyond modern genetic technology.

Daisy figured she could mull over this discovery later, she was on the right track for now, this planet was inhabited, and by what _had_ to be humans, no less. Sure, the ears were weird, but the rest of the guy looked human enough? He had to be human, right? Daisy shook her head and began running in the same direction she had been going all night. She occasionally looked at her HUD's compass to keep from getting turned around. Her augmentations allowed her to run for about five more hours before she saw lights ahead. She was almost there when yet another species of this planets incredibly hostile wildlife made itself known, this one looked like a big spiky bear. It was able to sneak up on her by hiding behind a rock, one of massive paws striking her and sending her flying a few feet, Daisy rolled with the landing and was back on her feet with her shotgun in her hands ready to send fifteen pellets of 8 gauge buckshot her attacker. The bear thing roared and charged at her, it didn't make it far. Daisy cocked another shell into the M90's chamber as the creature fell dead at her feet. She turned back towards the light and was about to finish her little journey when the thing exploded, she spun around the noise only to receive a bone spike in her side, the rest of the spikes bouncing off of her armor plating. Every other kind of black animal on this world dissolved, so Daisy didn't think it would be a good idea to leave the spike in her, it was probably poisonous or something. Then again, it wasn't safe to take the spike out either, she would start losing blood fast if she did, but she was close to the light source now, that means she should be able to get some medical attention; blood loss was a lot easier to deal with than poisoning after all. She regretted her decision to remove the spike as soon as blood came gushing, Daisy immediately put pressure on the wound and resumed walking towards the light, which revealed itself to be a large, stilted house, the backdoor was up on a balcony and in her current condition, Daisy couldn't jump up to it, that'd also probably be pretty rude. She was losing blood fast, pain meant nothing to a Spartan, but pain wasn't what was getting her, her vision was swimming and she was getting weaker. Daisy maid her way to the front door and knocked as her she was still conscious, but she didn't know for how much longer, she waited a few seconds and knocked again, she could hear footsteps now. She kept herself from collapsing until a very tall man with thick chest hair answered the door. In her delirious state, Daisy decided he looked very helpful, she then realized how tired felt and proceeded to take a nap, right there on the porch.

* * *

Salem regarded the strange creature that was looking around her throne room with a curious eye. Watts had found it working in his lab only moments ago, after a brief inspection of his machines, Watts had concluded that the creature did not sabotage any of his work, but had improved upon his designs instead and even went as far as to clean up some computer code he had been working on. It showed no signs of nervousness or distress around Salem, rather it only looked her form with curiosity before that very same curiosity extended to the rest of the room it was now inspecting. She called it over to herself and stroked its neck, the creature made a noise that Salem guessed was a sound of contentment, she then scratched underneath its chin. She removed a scroll from her pocket and watched the creature's eyes light up with excitement as she handed the device over to it. She then ordered the creature to change the scroll's function, the creature obeyed without question, taking the device apart and putting it back together in a matter of seconds. The creature set the new device on her table and waved its tentacles at the camera, the device translated its sign language into one, simple word. _Finished._ Salem smiled, a strange creature indeed.

* * *

 **Chapter two of _Warriors of Remnant_ finished. This chapter we introduce Chief Petty Officer Daisy-023, I wanted to put her in the previous version, but never got around, and then I read _Halo: Silent Storm_ and immediately knew she was gonna be a blast to write, I definitely recommend the book. I also learned that Daisy is pretty small for a Spartan, "just shy of two meters", or less than 6'6" or 6'7" if you round up, for the sake of story she's gonna be 6'7", which means 6'3" when not wearing MJOLNIR, about as tall as Torchwick. Where and when she died is pretty ambiguous, so I'm saying Harvest Campaign, 2528, so she's the same age as the other girls, again, for the sake of story. Once a week is the schedule. Feel free to present any criticism you may have, I'm a big boy, I can take it. **


	3. Contact

_-Contact-_

Two days in and stalking the General was proving to be only a marginally fruitful endeavor. Xal learned some access codes to a few doors, got a tour of the facility, and even learned a little about this "Atlas", but not much else. No one was talking, patrols were increased, everyone was understandably on edge. Realizing that he wouldn't learn anything by eavesdropping on nonexistent conversations, Xal decided on a more _aggressive_ approach. He was tailing multiple squads and pairs of troopers, waiting until they reached a point where their patrols didn't overlap with another group. He spent three days memorizing patrol routes and it was only a matter of time until they walked into his ambush. Xal leapt at at a pair of soldiers just as they turned the corner, punching one and elbowing the other, both fell to the ground without so much as a sound. They were going to be hurting when next they awoke, but he wouldn't be there when they did. Xal began looking through their belongings and equipment until he found what he was looking for, a small handheld device he had seen them use, most likely a form of data pad. When he opened it he was surprised to find that the screen was glass rather than hard light as he originally suspected, but the housing was much too small to completely enclose the screen and yet, by some technology beyond his understanding, they accomplished the improbable task.

He would view the contents of the device later, for now, he moved on to the weapons. Xal picked up one of the unknown assault rifles, it was heavier than most human made weapons he had used in the past, seemingly made out steel rather than the titanium alloy that was a major selling point with most manufacturers, but otherwise, it was well balanced and well made, and given the look of the helmets that the soldiers wore, it was more than likely HUD compatible, so he immediately tested his theory and linked his helmet to the weapon; he was soon presented with information, like the number of rounds in the magazine and a simple crosshair reticle. He returned the gun to its unconscious owner and grabbed one the less obvious contraptions the soldiers carried. It was smallish rectangular device, Xal tapped a button and was surprised to find that it was a sword and, like the data pad device, it was collapsible in a way that was physically impossible; it was a well meaning design, of that he was sure, but the handle that popped out of the other end appeared much too small to be able to fit comfortably in even a human hand, just more oddities with this strange military group. Xal had learned all he could without the proper time and facilities to study this technology, so he went off in search of a hiding place to pour over the contents of the device he had captured, anxious to learn its secrets.

Xal made his way between two of the less frequented structures at this facility's perimeter walls, they would provide some limited shelter from the blizzard and reduce the likely hood of him being caught while reading. When he opened the device once more he was met with a spear on a circle, likely the insignia of this planet's governing body or military. Xal was just about to start reading over the first files when the base's alarms went off once more, he immediately got to his feet and moved to a better vantage. The bases turrets began shooting at something beyond the walls. He waited and observed as the humans scrambled to their stations. They were yelling about "manticores" and a "goliath", could they be vehicles? Or weapons of some kind?

Xal thought he would received an answer when a fireball destroyed one the defense turrets, but his hypotheses were disproven when a massive, winged beast swooped down and took a couple of the soldiers in its claws. This kind of violence was very strange behavior for wildlife, most healthy animals would avoid such conflict, running away at the first sign of mortal danger, but here? Here they were attacking with a deliberate viciousness. Xal's observations only gained credence as another, smaller, species of winged creature began wreaking havoc with their numbers and their own fairly large size. Many were being shot down now that the humans managed to launch their aircraft, aircraft which Xal now had the opportunity to use in all of this confusion, which was much cleaner than his other plan, which consisted of disabling the base's defenses and communication systems and using the humans' aircraft to leave, but now those steps were unnecessary. Xal had everything he needed from here and there would be no benefit to letting this opportunity escape him.

Xal broke out into a run towards the area were their aircraft were kept, in all of this confusion it wouldn't surprise him if there was at least one these vehicles without a pilot at the moment. He looked back as he heard a loud crashing sound and saw that a huge black and white elephant had just broken through the wall, it was heavily wounded and died soon after accomplishing its task, but its death allowed strange wolf like animals to bound in through the breach, but it wasn't long before they were engaged in battle with this facility's combat drones. Xal noticed that the aggressors' numbers were starting to thin, he would need to escape quickly before the humans could recover from this battle and prevent him from leaving. Xal sped into a full on sprint when he saw an unoccupied VTOL, he was still well inside of his window for an easy escape.

Xal barely slowed his run as he turned onto the ramp, he thumped himself into the seat and began flipping the proper switches and levers for a take off, he had spent a short time studying the craft in the days he was here, so it was all pretty straight forward. He manipulated the the steering stick and was soon in the air, making it far away from this place in all the confusion, he would fly in this direction until he ran out of fuel, he'd rather they not find his trail for while yet. This was for the best, the only way for him to have gained anything else from that facility was to eliminate the entire base's compliment to allow himself the time and focus to study in-depth, but Xal had a basic code of ethics to preserve what little sense of honor he had left, an important part of that was refusing to kill to fulfill his own desires, he was was better than that, he _needed_ to be better than that.

(Line Break)

Daisy groaned as she saw sunlight through her eyelids, she couldn't remember the last time she was allowed to sleep for that long, but she felt like shit and no one decided to get her out bed yet. Normally, Daisy wouldn't complain this much about her rest being disturbed, and she'd definitely felt worse before, but she felt pretty sure she wasn't on a mission and that meant she can make whatever noise she wanted to, bonus if those noises pissed off John or any nearby ONI personnel. But alas, her long rest wasn't meant to be, Daisy blinked the sleep from her eyes and once again found herself waking up to unfamiliar surroundings, only this time she was in a loose gown with an IV drip in her arm. She contemplated ripping it out before fully remembering the events of last night: the shattered moon, the desert, those highly aggressive black animals, and most of all, passing out from blood loss.

Daisy looked around the room, trying to assess her situation. Had she been captured? Not likely, whoever put her in this room left her weapons on the nightstand next to the bed and the only restraint was the IV, and it was really only a restraint if she wanted to do some mental gymnastics. Was she being drugged? Yes and no, she felt completely fine other than a headache caused by dehydration and blood loss, and the only other sensations were in line with morphine or a similar painkiller, it had also been awhile since she'd eaten, so her stomach was up in arms too. That could only mean that was in the company of an actual Good Samaritan, cool. Or it could also mean her "saviors" were just playing the long game, which was also kind of cool, it made her feel special. Daisy was just climbing out of bed, briefly aggravating her stitched up wound, when the door to her room opened and the most beautiful woman she had ever seen walked in with a tray of food, the smell of it made Daisy's mouth water.

She was an older woman with black, neck length hair and golden eyes, but what really caught Daisy's attention were the ears. The pretty woman had a pair of black, feline looking ears with gold piercings, she vaguely reminded Daisy of some Ancient Egyptian art she'd seen in some of Deja's lessons. Her thoughts went no further when she heard the woman speak. "Oh, sweetie, no." The woman rushed over and placed the tray on the nightstand next to Daisy's guns. "You need rest, you lost a lot of blood last night." She coaxed Daisy back onto the bed by gently pushing her shoulders down. When Daisy was all tucked in, the woman retrieved the tray and placed it over Daisy's lap.

Daisy could have chosen to be concerned over her complete lack of resistance to the woman's gentle pushing, but was instead overwhelmed by hunger and proceeded to dig into the delicious smelling food before her. She ravenously shoveled the curry like dish into her mouth, the woman smiling benevolently all the while. Daisy had a brief moment of realization that she couldn't keep referring to her host as "the woman", but was too busy eating to solve that problem. Now that Daisy was finished, however... "Sorry-"

"That's alright dear, I knew you would be hungry after last night." The woman waved off her apology as unnecessary.

"Right, thanks." Daisy gulped, she had never been good at talking to anyone other than her fellow Spartans, and even then she would have been loath to call most of those conversations "pleasant". "Who are you?" Daisy mentally backhanded her self for her social ineptitude, _"'Thanks for saving my life, now who the fuck are you?!' Yeah, good one Daisy!"_ She berated herself. "I mean-um... sorry."

The lady only giggled at her plight. "That's alright sweetie, you can call me Kali." Daisy couldn't quite pin down the way Kali's tone of voice made her feel, knowing only that she felt warm. It was a vaguely familiar feeling, something she felt a long time ago, once thought to be lost. Daisy wasn't sure whether or not she liked it.

"Thanks, m-Kali." Daisy croaked out, she hadn't realized how dry her throat was, something that Kali took immediate notice of, she looked like she was about to call out to someone when the biggest man Daisy had ever seen opened the door, carrying a tray that held a tea set.

"There's my loving husband with the tea." Kali said fondly before walking over to the giant of a man and taking the tray. The size difference was staggering, Kali couldn't be much taller than 5'8", but her husband was as big as Jorge or Samuel, _in_ MJOLNIR. It was almost funny, really, but Daisy would never voice any of those opinions, that would be rude, which normally wouldn't be a problem for her, Daisy wasn't very nice to strangers most days, but Kali was nothing but cool to her and the woman practically _radiated_ trustworthiness. Or Daisy was high, who knew what this painkiller dripping into her could be doing?

The giant man poured a Daisy a cup of tea and brought over a stool for himself. "Do you know who I am?"

"No"

The man simply raised his eyebrow at Daisy's blunt answer. "I'm Ghira Belladonna, Chieftain of Menagerie, I only want to ask you few questions." Menagerie? Was that a planet, a continent, or a country? And questions? Was she going to be interrogated? Was she wrong about not being captured? If these people were trying to confuse her, it was working.

"Let her rest for a while, Ghira, she's still pail from last night." Kali almost scalded, her ears twitching in what Daisy guesses is annoyance. She would have to ask about those, too. Fully functional cat ears don't just grow on humans.

"Don't worry honey, these won't be difficult questions, I just want to get to know our guest." The massive man said, trying to assuage his wife's concerns.

"At least wait till after breakfast, dear." Daisy was used to people talking about her like she wasn't there, and Kali's voice made her feel safe for some reason, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"It's fine."Daisy interjects, sitting up straighter in her bed. "I'd rather get this over with now." It went unsaid that Daisy would decide her next move depending on the nature of the questions asked. "But I have questions, too."

"Alright, but like I said, these questions won't be difficult." Ghira shifted in his seat to get more comfortable. "How did you find yourself out in the jungle, fighting an Ursa Major?"

"That's what you call 'em?" Daisy asked relaxing at the non-prying question with the non-classified answer. "Well, I just kinda woke up in the middle of a desert and walked here, getting attacked by a bunch of weird animals every step of the way." Daisy was reminded of her embarrassing wound at the claws of that exploding bear. _"Not a thought I could of predicted ever crossing my mind."_ She mentally chuckled at the ridiculousness of that situation. "So, what can you tell me about Menagerie, Chief? Is that the Planet? The town?"

"Planet?" Ghira looked really confused now. "Do you really not know where you are?" Ghira and Kali looked more concerned than confused now, Daisy was getting a little worried.

"I thought that was obvious." Daisy was stressing out over all this shit again, but the answer to her next question was going to decide everything she did from here on out. "You're all human, aren't you?" Her voice was all but a whisper, it was probably a really stupid question, she hoped it would turn out that way, at least.

It was Kali who answered. "Of course not, we're Faunus, sweetie." Kali wiggled her ears for emphasis.

Daisy's hand moved before she had time to really process what was said, she was grabbing hold of her pistol's grip before she stopped herself. She looked over to Ghira and Kali for... something. Direction, maybe? Ghira was shielding his wife with his arm and Kali just had her hands over mouth in concern. Daisy let go of the pistol and grabbed her teddy bear instead.

The food and tea wound up spilled all over the place. Daisy was clutching the bear to her chest, doing her best to avoid the eyes of the couple she had just tried to threaten. This was all still okay, this situation was still salvageable. They weren't Covenant, if they were she would either be dead or they would have handed her off to an Elite or Brute for interrogation, and she hadn't shot at them, so no harm, no foul. Sure, these _Faunus_ spoke English somehow, Daisy wasn't sure on that really meant, but the language barrier was already taken care of, at least.

"I think she needs some time, Ghira." Kali said after everything calmed down and Ghira took Daisy's guns, an action that the young Spartan made no effort to stop. Kali was right, some time to think would be great, Daisy just _was not_ prepared for a first contact scenario. She would apologize for going for her gun and start making a good impression on these people.

 **(Line Break)**

 **Super late! I've got a lot of good excuses though. Power in my town went out for like a week after a snow storm wrecked the power lines, then after that I got distracted by _Metro Exodus._ So yeah, here ya go. All feedback is appreciated.**


	4. Freedom

This planet's wildlife was intriguing. Why were these animals so aggressive? Why did they recklessly attack whatever crossed their paths? Why was this behavior prevalent across so many different species? Normally, such questions would have thrown Xal's curious mind into overdrive with hypotheses and excitement. But under current circumstances? The old Sangheili could feel only exasperation, he was doing his best to outmaneuver his newest foes, but his lack of experience with the "Atlesian Dropship", as he called it, coupled with the precise, deliberate flight of these wasp-like creatures that harried him so, made for a heavily punctured hull and damaged engines. The fact that Xal had only slept for a few minutes at a time for over five days didn't help much either, but Xal's adrenaline saw to that problem. He would not be in the air much longer, but he was able to see land, so it wasn't all bad, any landing one could walk away from was a good landing and all that. Human aircraft never landed on purpose anyway.

Any hopes Xal may have had for a controlled landing were dashed as one of the larger wasps punched a hole through one the ship's engines. The ground came upon him fast, and everything went dark.

 _3 hours later_

Xal blinked away his unconsciousness. He was alive, he was still tired and his head hurt, but he was alive. Somewhat disappointing, but he couldn't actually complain. He could, however, complain about the infernal chiming coming from the dropship's dashboard and from the stolen "data pad". Xal's eyes widened in sudden realization, there were only a few things that the noises could mean: he was being tracked, he was being hailed, or the aircraft was giving him a damage report. He activated the data pad and saw only a pulsing red glow, no icons, no words or numbers, just a glow; that narrowed down his possibilities quite a bit. He would need to leave this vehicle and device behind, Xal could only _just_ contain his frustration. How many days had he wasted on that base and the people within it? Too many, and now he had nothing to show for it.

For the Nth time since he modified the Order's code for modern use, he contemplated abandoning it entirely, it wouldn't be able to bite him in the ass ever again. The Silent Shadow no longer existed after all, no matter if his old squad disagreed, but alas, Xal could not bring himself to lose that last shred of nobility, members of the Silent Shadow never killed according to their own wills; during the time of the Covenant, they served the Hierarchs as daggers in the night, after the Great Schism, the remaining sqauds scattered to the wind, finding new purpose wherever they could. Xal and his squad served the Arbiter and the Swords of Sanghelios for a time, but now Xal served his contracts, not the contract givers, only the contracts, his squad served on his family's scientific expeditions, many more of the Order's former members fell into line with pirates and practitioners of the Covenant religion, some simply followed their First Blades wherever they went.

Xal, now finished reminiscing on history, opened the ship's bay doors, failing to check his motion tracker. As soon as the doors opened, one of those black canine creatures pounced on him, knocking him to the floor. Xal held the held the beast's jaws at bay with a hand around its neck and delivered a quick hook, knocking out any teeth his fist came into contact with. Xal then reversed their positions and crushed the creature's skull with a downward punch. He was alert now. His motion tracker alerted him to five more contacts; he wouldn't use his active camouflage for this fight, it would be better if the creatures could see him, so that they may flee or come forward. Xal grabbed the leg of his most recent kill and dragged the dissolving carcass outside, intimidation tactics were generally more effective when someone was carrying a corpse.

Alas, the wolf-like creatures weren't very smart and leaped at him the moment his hooves touched the dirt. Xal rolled under closest of the jumpers and narrowly escaped being dog piled, he would chuckle at his pun later; he put his sword through the back of a very confused canine and beheaded another before they could react to his evasive maneuver. When the remaining wolves _did_ react however, they remained unimpressive, the creatures recklessly charged into his blade and died before they even hit the ground, normal pack hunters would have accepted the loss and fled after so many pack members being killed, but this planet's wildlife continued to perplex him.

Xal's sleep deprived brain momentarily glazed over while he tried to think; he almost didn't hear the aircraft rapidly approaching his position, two more dropships, same pattern as the one he stole. So he _was_ being tracked. Xal engaged his camouflage and slunk into the tree line, hiding beneath the canopy. Who did Atlas send to capture him? Soldiers? Machines? The question stayed his feet and opened the door to more bad decisions. There wasn't enough space for them to land, so they didn't, the dropships opened their doors and discharged their respective payloads. One dropped four of those black armored androids, the other dropped three more androids and a person of interest, the white haired woman that played second to General Ironwood. The woman's air support left, possibly so they could land and conserve fuel. Xal wondered whether or not he should feel insulted or flattered, one fighter of unknown skill and seven machines was hardly a task force, especially after all the conversations he heard about their base's security being the best on the planet.

And yet, the pale woman moved unnaturally fast for a human, had survived inside the blast radius of a plasma grenade, and summoned an _ice spike_ of all things to silence him, she was a _curiosity,_ one of Xal's more pronounced weaknesses. Pros: she had no air support, neither she or her machines could detect him, and he had a multitude of escape routes. Cons: Xal hadn't had any sort of meaningful rest in nearly a week, he was sluggish from age and exhaustion, and he knew not of his potential opponent's strengths or weaknesses. He could just leave, but what if there were more like the woman searching for him, humans with strange abilities and enhancements? Picking a fight right now could very well be the "safest" way for him to learn more of potential foes, true strength comes from knowing an enemy's weakness, after all.

The pursuit of knowledge compelled Xal to act, his training ensured his approach was as quiet as the softest of breaths. He snuck behind the first android and bisected it with a fast upward swipe, he deactivated his sword before the machine fell for maximum stealth efficiency. The robot's destruction alerted the rest of the group to his presence, the woman scowled and the rest of the machines continued scanning the environment for their enemy. It seemed that whatever sensory systems the robots had were not advanced enough to counteract his armor's numerous stealth systems. Xal circled the group and struck when the highest number of backs were turned to him; he leaped forward, stabbing one machine before pulling out and slashing at another. All "eyes" were immediately on his sword, the only thing visible about him. The robots' arms became chain guns and spun to life, hailing an impressive volume of fire on Xal's position, or his sword, rather.

Xal made sure he kept his blade as far away from his center as possible as he rushed the rest of the machines, striking down two more with his blade and firing at the last two with his plasma pistol. Xal had done his best to dodge the bullets the robots continually fired at him since the fight started, but the volume was too great for him to avoid entirely, each round briefly revealing him. He didn't know how big a deal that was until the woman struck him square in the chest, taking down his shields, and sending him to the ground. Luckily, he managed to do enough damage to disable the last machines, so he only had one more combatant to deal with, the object of his interest, the pale woman.

This was it, no more camouflage, no more machines, just a simple one on one. What's the worst that could happen?

(Line Break)

Daisy was lost in thought. She had encountered a new sapient species, who were decidedly _not_ Covenant and so far appeared to be non hostile, they spoke English, and looked remarkably human other than the cat ears and inhuman eye colors. And they were the sweetest people Daisy had met in her entire life. She was weak around Kali and Ghira and she didn't know why. That was a problem, she was used to keeping her guard up, any crack in her emotional walls and Halsey or some other ONI bastard could sneak in and take even more from her, but then why was she so comfortable around the Belladonnas. _Come on, Daisy, you're a genius, you have the papers to prove it!_

Before she could mull on the subject much longer, Kali and Ghira came back in with a tray of food and a tea tray, respectively. They had given her last night and half of today to think, but Daisy had slept through most of that, feeling weirdly comfortable in this house, comfortable enough to initiate conversation, even. "I'm sorry about yesterday."

"Yes, that is something we need to discuss." Ghira rumbled, setting the tea tray down. "Why did you feel the need to threaten my wife and I?" Ghira was calm as he poured the tea and handed Daisy a cup.

If she were anyone else, the giant man's calm demeanor, mixed with his incriminating words, would have frightened her, but she wasn't just anyone, Daisy was a Spartan. "I've had bad experiences with non-humans." She stated simply, accepting the tea with equal calmness. "I didn't know what to think, I spent my entire life being beaten and shot at, it's hard to trust new people, I lost my cool." None of that was classified, as long as "entire life" was written off as exaggeration.

"Don't worry about it, dear, I forgive you, Ghira does too." Kali looked at her husband smiled. "Right, Ghira?" There was a hint of danger in the Faunus woman's tone.

Ghira sighed, his massive shoulders sagging a bit. "Yes, honey, I forgive her." The man looked back to Daisy. "You said you spent your entire life fighting?" Daisy saw where this was going. "How old are you?"

"That's classified." Daisy didn't want to get into this again, Crowther already gave her hell over the Spartans' age, he was right, but that didn't mean it wasn't a frustrating situation. She could probably tell them, of course, she wasn't in UNSC space as far as she could tell.

"Classified?" Ghira asked, straightening in his chair. "Are you from Atlas?" A flash of worry streaked across the man's face for a brief moment.

"No, I'm not from Atlas." Actual answers defeated the purpose of something being classified, but Daisy didn't want to risk starting some kind of war on a different planet. That would be bad. She shouldn't have even told them she was a human... There were humans here!

When Daisy asked the Belladonnas if they were human, yesterday, they didn't bat an eye, they knew exactly what she was talking about. But it was also really weird, they didn't seem to know about the UNSC, which had become synonymous with humanity, instead asking if she were from this "Atlas" place, and Daisy was sure she would have heard about non hostile aliens. Daisy was becoming excited. "Is there a UNSC presence on this planet?"

Ghira raised one of his eyebrows and looked over to Kali, who merely shrugged her shoulders. "We don't know what that is." That one sentence. That one, wonderful, horrible sentence, sent Daisy's brain on a trip. A grin enveloped her face and she began to laugh, tears soon followed. She was free! She could figure out what that meant later, she was free!

 _~Two Days Later~_

Daisy stepped out into the light for the first time in days, her happiness never ceasing for a moment. Ghira and Kali tried asking where she was from again while she laughing like a maniac, she told them it didn't matter because no one could make her go back, Daisy didn't think it was a very convincing argument, but the Belladonnas stopped asking her personal questions after that for whatever reason. And now here she was, in a Menagerie security uniform (it was the only thing they had on hand in her size), ready to see the rest of Kuo Kuana. She decided against wearing her armor into town, she was told that it was generally pretty safe here and people would just assume she was a Faunus.

As Daisy walked away from the Belladonna house, a short girl with a reddish brown ponytail stepped in front of her. "I've never seen you around here before." The diminutive girl said, getting into step by Daisy as she continued walking.

"I'm new in town." Daisy said, not allowing the spontaneous social interaction to sour her mood. Not that it was at all possible to kill Daisy's mood right now. Daisy slowed down when she noticed the other girl was struggling to keep up with her stride.

"Where'd you come in from?" The girl asked, relaxing into her own stride, but was with all the questions? Do people approach random strangers like this all the time? Was this civilian life?

"Desert." Daisy answered honestly, they were getting close to the main town now. Daisy could smell fish and salt water.

The girl pondered that for a moment. "Oh, what's your trait, if you don't mind me asking?" The girl was wearing a smile now, Daisy supposed that it wasn't all that strange, today was a very nice day after all.

Daisy assumed the girl was talking about was talking about a Faunus trait, Daisy, being human, didn't have one, but she could still answer semi-honestly. "I can see in the dark." It was true, and also happened to be something Faunus related, hard to prove in broad daylight, though. "Do I know you?" Daisy asked, her discomfort getting the better of her.

"My name's Ilia." The girl answered, the spots on her skin turning pink briefly. "You?"

"Daisy." They walked in silence for a little while. "Is approaching random strangers and asking questions how people around her greet each other?" It was an honest question.

"What? Oh, no, I just haven't seen you around here before and thought that you might be a, um, uh-" Daisy knew nervousness when she saw it, usually from marines. "I thought you were a human trying to cause trouble."

Daisy kept looking straight forward, they were walking by houses now, none of were as grand as the Chieftain's house, but they were livable. "Do humans come around here often?" Daisy asked, looking at Ilia.

"Not really, that examiner from Beacon Academy is the first in a few years." An Academy? Daisy might check that out. "It was nice to meet you, I have some other business to take care of, later." Daisy gave a short wave as Ilia walked away. Daisy thought she was pretty good at this whole socializing thing, and that was only the fourth civilian that Daisy ever talked to.

Daisy continued walking, waving at anyone who said hello or waved at her, taking in all the shops, realizing she didn't have money and walking away. Daisy was enjoying life, no UNSC, no Covenant, no war, just life. She kept walking until a well dressed black man waved her over to a booth. He was an older gentleman with a short, salt and pepper beard and a bald head. The closest thing she could link to the booth was a military recruitment desk (or a college advertisement booth, but Daisy never saw one before), with all it's brochures and applications and paraphernalia.

"Hey there young lady." He didn't sound very old. "I'm Nickel Green, I'm a scout and combat examiner for the Beacon Huntsman Academy." He handed her one of the brochures. Daisy skimmed it a little, not really understanding much about the subject matter.

"I won't have to join anything will I?" Daisy was apprehensive about joining a combat academy, that implied military service and Daisy just went AWOL a few days ago.

"Not at all, once you graduate, you'll receive a license that lets you take on jobs, no one's going to tell you what to do with it, though." Daisy was starting to get it, it sounded like a license for mercenary work.

"Any benefits?" Daisy might not take any applications, but this sounded like it could be interesting, she didn't want to join any military, but she was kind of proud that she was good at fighting.

"All kinds, you get glory and excitement all while getting paid pretty well." Nickel's face was wistful for a moment. "But the main benefit, is your team, you might not get along with them at first, you might think they're biggest bastards on the planet," The wistful look returned. "But after a few weeks, you'll learn they're the coolest people you'll ever meet, your best friends, like the family you've always looked for." The man stared off into space for a while before coming back down to earth. "That's my experience anyway, just sign an application and pass the combat exam and you're in."

This guy was really selling it for Daisy, she figured she'd be fine as long as she could avoid more exploding animals. "Is there a tuition?"

"Nope, trust me, the exam is rigorous, it's hard enough getting in without having to worry about money."

"I'll think about it." Daisy said, grabbing an application and a few more brochures.

"Don't take too long, I'm leaving on the next boat in a couple weeks."

 **(Line Break)**

 **10,000 years! And I've finally sat my lazy ass down to write. And Daisy's 6'3" outside of armor, 6'0" was too short. I really do appreciate feedback, so please, comment.**


	5. IKnowWhattheLadiesLike

_I Know What the Ladies Like_

Xal and the pale woman stood apart, blades drawn. They were standing motionless, the world around them silent as if anticipating their battle. The woman summoned some kind of symbols in the air, which appeared to be glyphs, a force multiplier, perhaps? Xal activated his visor's red glow, intimidation being its only purpose, it also reinforced the notion that he was some kind of machine, a fun little game he decided to indulge in with this human. Another second passes and then they explode forward, their blades clashed and Xal was surprised to find himself struggling to keep a grip on his sword, such was the force of that first blow.

All consecutive clashes were far less powerful, but the woman was fast and Xal was having trouble getting his timing right, a slash to his chest clashes against his shields. If he weren't so tired it would be easy to grab her weapon and disarm her, but alas, this was an impossible feat for him in his current state. He blocks the woman's follow up strike with his sword, heating her blade to dull red, it didn't cut, but that wasn't really surprising, considering a plasma grenade produced more heat than his energy sword. They continued to clash blades, Xal using his reach advantage to keep his opponent on the defensive. The woman stepped into his guard, ducking his attempt to grab her and producing more glyphs in the same instant, surrounding him with the strange symbols. Xal reacts too late to stop the woman from bouncing from glyph to glyph, seemingly hitting him from all angles at once.

When she finished, Xal's shields had been depleted and he had been forced to one knee, his armor was fine, though, metal slashing weapons weren't made for taking on metal armor, but he still felt the force of each of those blows. He was learning so much, he hoped he survived long enough to use this information. His shields recharged while the woman was busy smirking at her success, his shields weren't particularly strong, but they recharged very fast, she wasn't happy about that.

They clashed again, though this time, Xal waited until the woman was mid-swing before mounting an attack of his own. His blade struck flesh, or would have, were it not for the barrier that protected her. But she felt pain, Xal could see it etched across her features, and judging by the intensity of her grimace, she didn't expect the amount of pain that the blades of searing hot plasma would cause. That is good. The distraction allowed Xal to finish his chain of blows, which consisted of two more slashes and a hard kick, which sent her flying instead of killing her, but she most definitely felt that.

Now it was Xal's turn to smirk. "My, aren't you an impressive creature?" Xal hadn't spoken in so long, it felt good to have a foe to banter with, she was durable, but she didn't have a way to actually kill him, a perfect partner. "Not many can say they've challenged a First Blade to a duel and survived for more than a few seconds. May I know your name, warrior?"

"You will answer my questions, not the other way around!" The woman had recomposed herself and was showing Xal the tip of her weapon.

Xal chuckled. "Ask away then, but first, your name."

The woman promptly ignored him. "What were you doing trespassing on Atlesian Military property?!" She wasn't exactly shouting, but was still being far louder than she needed to be.

"Your name!" Frustration, not something he wanted to deal with right now, to lose his composure would be to admit defeat, but this human's refusal to answer his one question in exchange for any of the vast knowledge at his fingertips was grating on his nerves.

"That is classified, now cooperate." Was she trying to take advantage of his emotional slip-up? How quaint.

"Humans, too proud to take what is offered to them, how unfortunate." Xal resumed his combat stance, seeing that this conversation was going nowhere. It didn't matter, the sooner he incapacitated her, the sooner he could sleep. He exploded forward with a series of blows, taking control of the fight. The woman tried jumping to create distance, foolish, jumping was incredibly easy to punish, so easy in fact, muscle memory took over and Xal had a hand around her ankle and her on the ground in short order, his follow up thrust was dodged and then countered with a slash across his faceplate. It wasn't all that much of a surprise, what was a surprise, however, was the bird in his face. Xal waved it away only to be pounced upon by an ethereal white wolf creature, it was such a jarring experience that Xal lost his sword, like an idiot.

The wolf wasn't hard to dispatch, it was only slightly stronger than the others, he stabbed it in the head with a wrist-mounted energy dagger and threw it off. He immediately began looking for his sword until he felt immense pain from his hip to his shoulder, he found his sword. Xal dropped to his knees and put a hand to his chest, unfortunately, his armor was the same color as his blood, so he couldn't see it on his gloves, but he could see it on the grass. This wound would most definitely scar.

The woman approached, his sword in hand. Xal would need that back, it wouldn't do to let a human hold it for long. "Specialist Schnee reporting, the subject has been subdued, aw-" Xal activated his camouflage and sent his fist into her gut, spun, and elbowed her between her shoulder blades before throwing her against the downed dropship, finally breaking her protective barrier.

"That was impressive, my expectations for humans are always low, perhaps I'll reevaluate that stance in the coming days." Xal decloaks and flips the woman, no, Specialist Schnee, and pins her with his hoof. "But unfortunately, allowing you and your search party to return home would be a grave mistake." Xal raises his sword. "I'll remember your name."

Before he could deal the finishing blow, however, he was struck by a powerful shotgun blast that knocked him off his feet. He was starting to truly feel the past week's effects on his body, his stims had worn off days ago, he found he was unable to stand. He glared balefully at his newest enemy, a scruffy man with a red cape before a blow to the head knocked him out.

* * *

 _Ladies Like Armor Plating_

Today was Daisy's last day to submit her application. She had spent the past two weeks researching this Beacon Academy, so far, she liked what she found, and she was just about the right age to fit in with the rest of the first years. The Academy wasn't the only thing she learned about though, she also learned that humans were terrible no matter where they were, if they couldn't hurt their own they'd hurt someone else, at least there were no Elites, then nobody would be having a good time. Enough of that, today was a happy day, for the first time, Daisy got to choose to fight, got to choose who to fight for, for the first time, Daisy's life was her own.

Daisy stepped out into the sun, donning her armor. Only two people on the planet have seen her in it, so it only made sense that she'd get a lot of stares. She made her way to Green's booth, ready to face anything the exam could throw at her. She ran into Ilia on the way there, come to think of it, she ran into Ilia a lot over the past couple of weeks. Daisy didn't think it was all that weird, just statistically unlikely, especially since Daisy always went out at different times and explored different parts of the town. Maybe it was a little weird. "Why do you follow me around? I didn't think I was all that interesting."

Ilia started at the sudden question, the two women had slipped into a comfortable silence some time ago. "You're taller today." Was she blushing? What did she have to be embarrassed about?

"Yeah, the armor adds a few inches." Daisy shrugged. "But you didn't answer my question, why am I so interesting to you?"

"W-well, you're new here, I just wanted to make sure you didn't get lost." Ilia's blush deepened, Daisy didn't know what to feel about that. Was it because of her? "So, that's some nice armor, where'd you get it?"

"That's a loaded question." Not to mention all the answers were classified. By who? This planet was obviously uncharted and completely independent of the UNSC and its colonies. No one would ever find out. Answering would also piss off someone important, a sweet bonus. "It's too personal." She couldn't move past any of it people knew, they would pity her or treat her like a tool, she didn't need that.

Ilia nodded, seemingly in understanding. "So you're going off to be a huntress?"

"Yeah." Daisy straightened out her papers. "Killing monsters and making friends, what's not to love?"

Ilia was about to say something before she was interrupted by Mr. Green. "Good to see you, I thought you got cold feet." Green showed no outward reaction to MJOLNIR, as if he'd seen stranger things. The man stuck out his hand in greeting.

Daisy returned the gesture. "Just needed to think on it for awhile."

"Well, I'm glad you're here." Green said, releasing her hand. "Now, let's see," Green was flipping through the application packet, after a few seconds he holds the papers out to her, pointing an inconvenient little line. "Looks like you forgot your last name."

"Shit." Daisy spat under her breath, she forgot her last name years ago, no point in remembering after her hopes of escaping the Program were mercilessly dashed right in front of her face. She'd have to make one up. "Right, let me see that." She took the papers and pondered what to jot down. A flower maybe? She thought. *No, my first name is already a flower.* A color then? She could just choose any color and call it a name, the guy in front of her is named Nickel Green. *Am I thinking about this too much?* Daisy had never been in this situation before. *Bellis!* The genus in which daisies are a part. She was overthinking this! Daisy finished signing the packet and handed it back to Green.

"Alright, everything checks out, follow me to the course and we'll get right to it."

* * *

After a somewhat lengthy hike away from Kuo Kuana to an isolated section of the beach, Daisy saw some kind of machine, it was small, likely meant to be semi-mobile, she couldn't really puzzle out its function from its outward appearance. It was an odd collection of cylinders, camouflaged for sand. *Guess I'll find out in a moment.*

"This is the exam site," Green announced, increasing his volume so that he is heard clearly, "and this devious little machine is going to bring in your test." He slapped the top of the device. "Once activated, it will let out a signal that will attract Grimm to this location, you will fight and kill Grimm until either your aura breaks and I have to interfere, or until you have achieved the maximum score. Any questions?"

"What Grimm forms should I expect?" Daisy asked, really not wanting to deal with any more explosive animals.

"The wildlife in Menagerie is dangerous enough that most Grimm don't make it past their first year, so expect mostly Beowulves and Creeps, but also be prepared for the occasional Ursa or Ursa Major." *Ugghh.* "It'll take awhile to get points with most of those types, I hope you brought a lot of ammo." That said, the examiner activated the Grimm attractor and stepped back.

Daisy drew the security pistol she borrowed from the Belladonnas, preparing for the fight. After a short while a single contact appeared on her motion tracker. Creeps. Daisy rolled to her right as the burrowing creature burst from the ground where she was standing less than a second before, it earned three shots to the head. Daisy scanned the area for more contacts, wondering if there would be more, before hearing the sound of falling trees and the stomping of many heavy feet.

"Damn, sounds like a Deathstalker." Said Green with a worried and apologetic look on his face.

"The fuck is a Deathstalker-" Daisy barely got out before a massive scorpion burst out of the trees, it was covered in short spines and very thick, bony armor. That answers that.

"If you need help-"

"How many points do I get if I kill it?" Daisy interrupted.

"You'll exceed the max score." Green said simply, very concerned for her safety. "But this is out of your league, it takes entire teams of first-year academy students to put something like that down."

"Watch me." Daisy said a smile growing on her face. *This'll look great on my transcript.* Daisy put away the security pistol and drew her shotgun, getting ready to take on the massive tank-like beast charging at her.

She waited until the heavily armored Grimm had pulled its claw back to strike at her, she waited until its face was exposed before pulling the trigger and jumping out of the Deathstalker's reach. A few pellets hit one of its eyes while the rest embedded themselves into its armor, causing the Grimm screech in rage and pain, mostly rage. Now the giant scorpion was shielding its eyes with its claws while it began striking blindly at her with its tail, some sixth sense telling the Grimm her general position. She dodged each strike, forming a plan of action: her shotgun wasn't exactly designed with armor penetration in mind, the exact opposite actually, she also doubted her magnum could do anything more than piss it off, so that left the needler. The flamboyant weapon could probably shred that bone plate, but she didn't really have any way to reload it the moment, so missing wasn't an option.

The next time the Deathstalker's tail came down Daisy sidestepped it and grabbed on tight with one arm, the needler in her other hand. The tail went back up less than an instant later, Daisy entered Spartan Time, the world slowing down around her as the top of the Grimm's carapace came into view, she wasted no time in unloading the needler's entire caddy into said carapace. The subsequent super combine stunned the Deathstalker and left a gaping hole in its now bedazzled armor. All that was left to do was finish it. Daisy pressed the barrel of her shotgun to the struggling creature's exposed flesh and pulled the trigger.

Daisy turned to Green, smiling behind her visor. "Did I pass?"

* * *

 **I've done it! I finished the chapter! Special thanks to Healthcare.gov for all their help with editing. Please leave a review to tell me what you thought.**


	6. NoOneWasKilled

"So, What is it?" Qrow asked, looking down at the purple monstrosity of metal he just took down.

Winter got up and glared at him, clutching at her side, the thing must have broken a couple of ribs when it started tossing her around. "What are you doing here, Qrow?"

"Relax, Ice Queen, I was in the area when I got a call about an airship going down." Qrow knelt down to get a closer look. The thing's armor looked like it was sealing itself back together.

"What'd you do to piss it off?" Qrow jokes.

Winter didn't think it was very funny and she didn't want to tell him anything, but Qrow had the clearance, even more than her, as she learned at Ironwood's last meeting with Ozpin. "It broke containment at on our facilities last night, I tracked it to this location and attempted to recapture it."

"Any ideas on what it is?" Qrow asked, tracing one of the markings on the thing's armor. From what he saw of the fight, the stuff it was made of was harder than anything he had ever dealt with. He was surprised it went down as easy as it did, even with the damage Winter already did.

"At first, we believed it to be some kind of machine, but then it woke up and started talking, it spoke with an accent and seemed frustrated when we refused to negotiate with it."

"Did you try removing the armor?"

"We didn't have the chance, it escaped before we could do anything." Winter looked at the thing with an emotion that Qrow didn't recognize.

Qrow grabbed at the thing's helmet, looking for a way to get it off. After a few seconds of twisting and prodding, the helmet popped off with a hiss, revealing the creature's strange reptilian face. "Oz is gonna want to see this."

* * *

Daisy was excited to have her journey underway. She couldn't remember a time when she'd ever felt like this, and she'd get to see what this world had to offer. She had taken her life back, and by whatever gods there were, she was going to live it. After packing her few belongings and saying goodbye to the few people she knew, she boarded the ship and waved goodbye to Menagerie.

* * *

Xal slowly blinked himself awake, he was in a terrible lot of pain. His head, his chest, and as the memories came back to him, his pride, just a little, it was a fine battle, but he still lost. He didn't worry about his wounds, he'd be fine in a few days, what he was worried about was being captured… again. Not his best week. He wished he had some voyager stimulants, they'd help with the sleep deprivation. Xal scanned the room, it was a standard interrogation chamber, blank walls, a two-way mirror, a camera. Xal took it all in, processing every detail before his eyes settled on the well-dressed man seated before him.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours, sizing each other up. Xal had the advantage in this, his helmet obscured all of the emotion that he had been trained to suppress, not even his body language would give anything away other than the general sense of danger from being in the same room as a predator. The man before him was almost just as hard to read, something was off about him, Xal did not trust this person. Xal would rather not be on this planet any longer, so he made his demands. "I want you to point me towards the nearest interstellar transmitter, my patience is not infinite."

A look of surprise washed over the man for the briefest of moments, was he surprised that Xal chose to speak almost immediately after waking up or was he surprised by the not so subtle threat? The answer was probably "yes". "Please, there's no need for hostility, we're not your enemy." The man's voice was calm, polite, that didn't ease Xal's mind at all.

"That remains to be seen, my last hosts were rather uncooperative. Under the circumstances, I've been shockingly nice." Xal noted that he was still armed, an obvious show of goodwill from his new hosts. "I hope you understand that my capacity for kindness is limited." He rested his chin on top of his fingers.

"I don't intend to test those limits, but I have questions, you're sudden arrival caused quite the stir with one of my colleagues."

"Take me to a transmitter and we will have weeks, months even, to indulge each others curiosity." Xal's done darkened. "But nothing happens until either my demands are met, or you foolishly refuse."

"I'd be happy to help under normal circumstances, but I'm afraid your request is impossible." The man was ignoring his threats, what an asshole.

"Explain." Xal leaned back, relaxing his posture, not bothering to conceal his ever more threatening tone of voice.

"We simply don't have that sort of technology."

"What?" Drown the anger, drown the anger. "I'd like you to show me your most powerful transmitter, relay, or signal repeater. I refuse to believe that any space-faring species would allow even a rebellious colony to be completely cut off from contact."

"We are not space-faring, dust loses power when it leaves our atmosphere, that's common knowledge." The man explained, trying to keep control of the situation.

"Dust? I'm beginning to think you are suicidal." Xal growled, stand over the table and towering over the man. "I don't appreciate being treated as a joke!" Xal was struggling to keep himself under control. Who does this bastard think he is?! Xal would stand for this no longer. He drew his sword and prepared for another escape, this time he would leave no survivors.

"There's no need for that, I'm being honest with you." The man held his hands out in a placating gesture. "The CCT tower is only a short walk away, you can be given access to a computer and the information you require to reach your own conclusion, just put the weapon away."

Xal briefly thought about the offer before putting his sword away. "Very well, but know this is your last chance, do not disappoint me."

* * *

Ozpin didn't know what to think of the giant reptilian warrior Qrow brought before him. He plied Ironwood and Winter for answers, but they knew nothing of its origin and could only show him the interrogation logs and security footage taken from the day it arrived.

Ozpin watched the footage with intrigue as the scene played out. The warrior was pacing in the cell, observing Ozpin's colleague, there was no audio so it was a very big surprise when the reptile went from relaxed to hostile with no warning, breaching containment and disappearing with relatively little violence.

Reports up to a day ago showed no further incidents beyond missing food and destroyed surveillance equipment. Then, a Bullhead was reported stolen and Specialist Schnee sent to retrieve it, there she engaged the heavily armed reptile, losing a small contingent of androids and nearly her own life if not for Qrow's timely intervention.

Then he spoke to it, he was surprised at how quickly it had recovered from hours of being unconscious, electing to speak almost immediately after coming to, making demands and coldly voicing not-so-subtle threats, it's tone getting colder and colder before it exploded with the promise of violence. All in all, a very unproductive conversation, but what little he was able to learn troubled him, it believed that humanity had achieved space travel and could communicate between the stars themselves, it also implied that it was not of this world or even this solar system for that matter. Was such a thing possible, could people such as this truly leave the confines of their world? What did that mean for Remnant and humanity? He must have answers.

Ozpin had no choice but to give the being what it wants, an easy enough request, and with most students being out until next semester, it was unlikely to be seen, he would show the creature that he was honest, and he would get his answers. Hopefully. The warrior only slightly twitched in surprise when it saw Qrow and Winter standing outside the interrogation room, but quickly played it off, it was almost imperceptible, something else he noticed, it didn't like to be perceived, it showed only what it wanted others to see, not something Ozpin could rightly begrudge without being a hypocrite. It waited silently for the party to start moving, suddenly unwilling to speak, its footsteps were equally silent, like a predator.

Soon the CCT was before them, and then there would be no more questions.

* * *

Humans never ceased to be enigmatic. This "CCT" was far too large for its suggested function, this is something that could only justify its existence with a lack of satellites, but no one was that primitive, but that would mean that these people were just wasteful, and humans just didn't have those kinds of resources anymore, not after the Created, but the rest of the areas architecture suggested otherwise. Perhaps this planet was somehow spared from the various wars? No, it was far too built up to be some kind of backwater. Xal growled behind his faceplate, these questions would be answered soon enough.

The party stepped inside the too-small elevator and went up, where a room full of computers awaited them. The man with the grey hair placed one of those small data pads in a port, activating the monitor.

What followed was many hours of searching for relevant information, first, about this world's infrastructure, when that only created more questions, history. Xal became more and more perplexed as he searched, millennia of history where all sense told him there should barely be centuries, this wasn't Earth, and yet there was a Stone Age and clear technological advancements and regression, all spaced out throughout thousands of years, such wasn't exactly an impossibility, but was very unlikely, almost an impossibility. That was all rather concerning on its own, but what really brought on a slight taste of despair, was this "Dust" material. It could not leave the atmosphere and it was the best form of power Remnant had and the only form that was even developed, therefore, space travel was beyond the scope of this planet's natives.

Two of the three humans had fallen asleep, but were rudely awakened when Xal slammed his fist into the computer, destroying it in the process. Xal quickly calmed down and turned to the only human who hadn't fallen asleep, the grey-haired man. "I remember you saying you wanted to talk."

* * *

"Perhaps we should start with introductions, I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy." All involved were now in Ozpin's office, watching the eight and a half feet tall saurian pace in front of Ozpin's desk, ready to act in case of one the being's unpredictable episodes.

"I am Xal 'Kalek, former First Blade of the Silent Shadow." It-Xal, stopped pacing only long enough to speak, then resumed.

"Silent Shadow?" That sounded important.

"An order of assassins, it no longer exists in any official capacity."

That was concerning, but before Ozpin could voice his opinion Winter drew her sword and made her presence known.

"So we were right to detain you?!" She was obviously angry, possibly thinking that Xal was meant to kill Ironwood.

"Put the weapon down girl, if any of you were meant to fall to my blade it would have been done long ago. If you recall, I stalked you and yours for nearly a week." The words did little to calm the Specialist.

"Calm down Ms. Schnee, we don't want to resume the hostility, I'm sure our guest had a good reason to be where he… she…"

"I am a male of my species."

"I'm sure he had a good reason, isn't that right?" Winter reluctantly lowered her blade, but didn't sheath it.

"I am not here of my own volition, there are many strange and wonderful things in this great galaxy of ours. I encountered one such thing, which malfunctioned and sent me to this world." Xal had stopped moving, it appeared that the conversation was distracting him from previous woes. "Needless to say, I'm just as annoyed as any of you."

"Are you truly so foreign?" Ozpin already knew the answer, but wanted confirmation.

"Yes, my people have known how to traverse the space between stars for thousands of years." Thousands?

"Is there any chance of your people coming here?"

"No, your planet has nothing of value that's not easier to get elsewhere, I'd also wager that your world is out the way of any trade routes and offers no strategic advantage, there is nothing to be gained here." That was some weight off of Ozpin's shoulders, he had no choice but to trust the alien on this matter. "Before we go further, do not ask questions you aren't prepared to have answered, I know many things that should remain secrets." That makes two of us.

Ozpin thought about the alien's statement further, what secrets did the warrior hold, so many questions. "How is it that you speak Valian? By your own admission that you're a recent arrival."

"That's one of those questions, you aren't prepared for the answer." Xal chuckled, an unpleasant sound, Ozpin doubted he was the first to think so.

It seemed no more answered would be forthcoming, and Ozpin had no more questions nagging at him. Except one. "What will you do now that you're stranded?"

"Search for an alternate means of communication, possibly take a few contracts in the meantime." Xal turned to leave.

What could he mean by contracts? Wait, he was an assassin! Ozpin couldn't let him leave, an undetectable killer couldn't be allowed to meet anyone who would need an assassin. "Wait!" Xal turned back. "I-I might have work for you."

Qrow and Winter looked at him like he grew a second head. "Is that so?"

* * *

 **Hooray! Special thanks to Healthcare.gov for all their help.**


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